US Special Forces 'Tried to Cover Up' Botched Khataba Raid in Afghanistan

[Echo In Light]

by Jerome Starkey, Kabul

US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims' bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times. Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The precise composition of the force has never been made public.

The claims were made as Nato admitted responsibility for all the deaths for the first time last night. It had initially claimed that the women had been dead for several hours when the assault force discovered their bodies. "Despite earlier reports we have determined that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men," said Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Nato spokesman. The coalition continued to deny that there had been a cover-up and said that its legal investigation, which is ongoing, had found no evidence of inappropriate conduct.

The Kabul headquarters of General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces, claimed originally that the women had been "tied up, gagged and killed". A senior Afghan official involved in a government investigation told The Times: "I think the special forces lied to McChrystal."

"Why did the special forces collect their bullets from the area?" the official said. "They washed the area of the injuries with alcohol and brought out the bullets from the dead bodies. The bodies showed there were big holes."

<snip>

"I asked McChrystal, ‘why did the Americans clean some of the bullets from the area?' They don't have the right to do that," the official said.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/05

[Lost4words]

1. Lie and Kill what other tricks do they use?

Remember the footbal player they killed? And lied about, and covered up. If ordered to they would kill us.

[unhappycamper]

2. The unrecers are out in force.

k&r

[Echo In Light]

4. Big time. That's okay, though. I keep bumping to keep what they find unfavorable seen

[G_j]

7. and WHO would do that? nt

[tekisui]

10. Message Controllers.

[amborin]

3. K&R

[tekisui]

5. Digging bullets out. Yeah, we're 'the good guys'.

Get the fuck out of Afghanistan.

[bvar22]

6. Meet "The Government of Afghanistan".

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children fighting and dying in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

Commanded in Chief
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/engelhardt

Osama Bin Ladin is NOT in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda is NOT in Afghanistan
Nobody we are killing in Afghanistan had ANYTHING to do with 9-11.

[Echo In Light]

9. "Nobody we are killing in Afghanistan had ANYTHING to do with 9-11."

You got it

[Karmadillo]

8. We need to stop being "Good Americans."

nt

[Echo In Light]

12. United We Fall

[leftstreet]

11. K&R

[Echo In Light]

13. Bump

[Echo In Light]

14. Bump

[Echo In Light]

15. Bump

[Mari333]

16. k

[Echo In Light]

17. Bump

[Mari333]

18. k

[Echo In Light]

19. Bump

[blindpig]

20. Where are the defenders of Empire on this thread?

*crickets*

k&r

[Echo In Light]

21. Had this been more obscure the conservatives would deny it as a Conspiracy Theory

... or at best, those 'loony lefties' are overstating what happened

Count on it